Hello again! I sit in Boussens, Switzerland, a small village outside of Lausanne. From the backyard you can see the Alps and Mont Blanc. Spent the new year here with the family that we know here at a "country line dance party" at the local community center. It was rather strange at times, I was surrounded by a bunch of Swiss people dressed in fringed shirts, big belt buckles, cowboy hats and boots...and when the music was playing loudly, I almost forgot I was in Europe! They line-danced throughout the night-I joined in when I knew the dance and also learned a few new ones to add to my répertoire! haha. They love BR5-49 here and I danced with Courtney during one of their songs...it was very comfortable for me, I felt like I could've been in Nashville until I looked around and didn't recognize many people. The family that I'm staying with is very very nice and open minded to Americans...something that I find is not very common here. We spent the 2nd and the 3rd in another small village at the family's cousin's house. There was a pool indoors and it was right on a lake, very beautiful surroundings, but the cousin's husband absolutely DOES NOT like Americans. He was the classic, overweight French speaker who constantly drinks wine and meat, you could easily picture him in a tavern surrounded by his man-friends discussing topics like, oh, I don't know, wine and meat! He taught us many valuable things like: the only good thing America ever did was make this one cork screw that he owned...or that "A beer drinker is one who is too lazy to go to the water fountain"...he is quite the connasseur of wine-we drank about 8 bottles the first night and started again the next day at noon and drank even more. He even threw out a bottle because it tasted like cork! Oh, what an experience! Luckily for me, my French has improved enough that I was able to defend myself and my nationality a little bit, but I don't think it made any difference. C'est la vie! I return to Besancon today for school starts tomorrow.
Katherine, the Hansens and I had a very nice trip throughout France-we visited the cathedrals in Chartres and Reims, the battlefield in Verdun and Paris. I think we got to see almost all of the tourist sites in Paris! Oh and let us not forget that they got to spend time in the lovely city of Besancon...ha! I had a lovely Christmas and was actually able to get out of the dorm. We have a friend, Richelle, who was appartment sitting and we had a little anglophone Christmas with lots of food and wine and presents. It was very nice and cozy.
I guess that's all for me at the moment. I have two more papers to write until I can feel "finished" with this semester and then hopefully I will be able to come home for a little visit in January.
Until then...
1/3/2001 03:16:20 AM